Zelda Breath of the Wild: The Time Fix
by bigb360
Summary: Prompted by voices from the past, Zelda is able to send Link back in time after Calamity Ganon tricks and defeats the Champions and herself. Will it be enough to change the course of history? Definite AU: how things could have gone if BOTW Zelda had the Princess of Time's powers.
1. Prologue

Zelda felt heat rush by her head before she felt the explosion that threw her to the ground. Ears ringing, she was dutifully scooped up by a pair of strong arms and set right again. She knew well enough to shake off the shock of the explosion and continue running. The rain pelted her head and made the path soft and difficult to run on, but the hand that held hers compelled her to move forward. Her lungs burned and her vision blurred as mud and water began to run down her forehead and into her eyes. Then the voice pierced her consciousness, "I killed the dumb rock first, Princess," it said. She shuddered and gasped, stumbling slightly, but the strong hand held her up. "Blew him into a thousand pieces."

The voice, deep and malevolent, cackled, "Then I killed the bird. He bragged about how he was going to end me all the way up until I crushed his skull."

The tears began to roll down Zelda's face mixing with the rain and mud, but she continued on, still guided by the strong hand that held onto hers. The voice pierced her mind again, "The fish girl was especially feisty," it said, and the tone of perverted sadism and the sound of the voice licking his lips caused Zelda's stomach to turn. Her legs gave out and she fell in the mud, slipping from the grip of the one who led her on. She sobbed into the mud as the evil voice went on, "she held on as long as she could, but was no match for me. And then the Gerudo, one of my own, heh heh heh. So strong, yet so stupid. I fried her to a crisp."

"No!" Zelda wailed as the strong arms once again attempted to lift her off the ground, but she didn't want to move anymore. The clanks and whirrs of mechanical legs quickly approaching, and the incessant beeping that she knew was a portent of a quick death finally broke her from her despair and she attempted to rise once again. But she felt the heat again, and then was thrown through the air by another explosion and landed hard on a warm body.

"Link, no!" she said as she looked down at the man who had become her only hope and who had just broken her fall. He had landed on a rock and looked to have broken his shield arm. The sword that seals the darkness was his only means of propping himself up as he rose to a knee and attempted to stand to confront the mechanical monsters that now surrounded them. Zelda suddenly realized that it was all over.

"They're all dead, Link," Zelda said hoarsely, "he killed everyone. He killed our friends. It's over."

Link vigorously shook his head as multiple red beams of light lit up his chest as he finally stood. Her knight would fight to the end. He would die defying the darkness. She couldn't bear the thought. They didn't deserve to die. Her friends, they fought to the end for her; a failure. They suffered in despair because she couldn't do what her predecessors had done. She failed, and so they died. And soon, the whole world would die. Link would…die.

She looked up as a guardian slowly stepped up to them, its red eye aimed straight at her knight's chest. It was ready to fire, and it would incinerate her knight, her friend, her Link.

"NO!" she screamed as she stepped in front of the battered young man as the machine fired. She caught the beam with her hand and repelled it with an amazing flash of light that emanated from her hand and arm. A familiar symbol lit up on the back of her hand as she extended the power forward and destroyed the guardian with ease. The rest of the guardians began to fire, and as if she'd had the power her entire life, she threw up a barrier of light around the two of them and held off the blasts. But then a sudden fatigue began to set in, and she realized she wouldn't be able to continue to hold the beasts back.

"What am I to do!?" she yelled, at whom she did not know. She was desperate for an answer. Why would she just now achieve what she hadn't been able to for years at a moment when it would do her no good? But just as suddenly as she asked, it was as if a new understanding dawned on her. An understanding from someone much like herself, but from a long time ago.

She quickly turned to Link, who had once again fallen to his knees and was looking at the spectacle with awe, and aimed her free hand toward him. A bubble that distorted space and time formed around him and she yelled, "tell them what happened Link! We can't let this happen! We can't let Ganon kill everyone!"

The bubble began to close around him and her shield finally failed. To Zelda's dismay, and in what seemed like slow motion, the bubble did not close around Link quickly enough to prevent his arm from being blown off by a blast from one of the guardians. In shock she watched as the severed limb fell to the ground, its owner now gone. All that remained was her, the arm, and the sword that seals the darkness.

Her mood instantly shifted from hope to intense anger, and she picked up the sword that seals the darkness. It lit up in a brilliant light. She drew from its power and destroyed the entire area around her.


	2. The Surprise

Zelda hummed to herself as she turned the Shiekah slate over in her hands. It had become a habit of hers to inspect it during the down times in her travels. She glanced up at the hillside as the cool breeze ruffled the green grass of Hyrule Field. She smiled as she thought of how much the sight reminded her of the ocean near Zora's domain. It had been quite a while since she was last there, and she recalled how beautiful the city was, and how friendly its people were. She glanced to her left to her companion who had stayed behind with her as the others had gone off to gather some supplies. Mipha had a distant look on her face as she seemed to also be watching the field ripple in the wind. Zelda smiled and assumed the same thoughts about Mipha's home were passing through the Zora princess' mind as well.

Breaking the silence, Zelda said, "It reminds me of the ocean near your home."

Mipha turned to her and smiled, "That's just what I was thinking, your majesty."

She considered Mipha her friend, though sometimes the young Zora seemed distant. Zelda had been surrounded for years by either men ordered to protect her by her father, or Urbosa, who often annoyingly treated Zelda like a little girl. It was nice to have someone her age who was in a similar situation to herself to sometimes chat with. She just wished she and the Zora Princess were a little closer. Mipha always seemed nervous around her, and thus they never really got beyond superficial conversation. And given how busy they had been traveling for the better part of two months, the female bonding she had always wanted never happened. Zelda wondered if that moment was a good time to change that.

"Mipha, would you mind telling me a little bit about your home?" Zelda asked.

Mipha craned her head a bit and looked briefly surprised at the new topic of interest from the Hylian Princess. "What would you like to know?"

Zelda put the Shiekah slate down and crossed her legs, "Oh I don't know, what was your childhood like? Was your father as protective of you as mine is of me?"

Mipha chuckled and replied, "Protective might be putting it lightly. When I was younger, my father didn't let me out of his sight for six whole months at one point. It was only because I snuck away one day that I got any reprieve, and then he sent a whole Zoran regiment out to find me." Zelda nodded and could identify all too well. Mipha continued, "I can't be too hard on him though. Mother had just passed away at that point, and Sidon and I were all he had left."

Mipha's tone had taken a somber turn. Zelda looked up into the sky and said, "My father was the same way after my mother died. The thing is, he's still smothering me with protection. He assigned me my own 'personal royal knight escort,' and sent the entire contingent of champions with me on this trip."

Mipha was quiet for a moment and Zelda looked over to her. It seemed as if Mipha was trying to say something to her but was holding herself back. Zelda, hoping to continue their talk, encouraged her to continue, "What is it, Mipha? You know you can talk to me whenever you want. I feel like we have so much in common and want to be better acquainted with my only real girlfriend."

Mipha smiled, "Well, I just have never been sure how to bring this up. Um, I didn't sneak away when I was younger by myself."

Zelda smiled knowingly and said teasingly, "Oh! Did you sneak out with someone? Was it a boy?"

The Hylian Princess got the reaction she wanted as the Zoran Princess' face turned almost as red as the rest of her body, "A-as a matter of fact it was. You see, your father, in an effort to deepen the relationship between Zora's Domain and Hyrule, began sending a contingent of Hylian ambassadors to the Domain to hold talks about trade and military cooperation. Along with the ambassadors they sent some of the best Hylian knights. One of those knights brought his son with him…"

"Ah yes," Zelda said, "I do recall that period vaguely. Father has told me how much the relations between us improved during those talks." Zelda's face then formed into a sly grin. "So you snuck away with a young Hylian boy, huh? How scandalous."

Mipha nodded, "Y-yes, you see, the knight that brought his son was the head of your father's royal guard. The boy was…"

"LINK!?" Zelda yelped as she suddenly realized.

"What about, Link," a third voice unexpectedly intruded on the two young women's conversation and startled them both.

"Oh, Revali," Zelda breathed, "you're back."

"I sure am, and with all of this firewood I collected, it seems to me that I should come upon a conversation about how incredible I am, not that undeserving 'knight' of yours," Revali sneered and literally performed air quotes when sarcastically referring to Link as a knight.

The bird began to stack up the firewood as if nothing had happened as Zelda turned back to Mipha who was glaring angrily at the pompous Rito warrior. Suddenly Mipha's standoffish attitude toward Revali the last few months made a little more sense. The Zoran princess stood up and began to quickly stomp off toward the nearby tree line.

"Revali," Zelda said as she stood up to follow, "maybe for the sake of group morale you should take it a little easier on Link?"

Revali huffed and said something she didn't quite understand leaving her to simply sigh and being jogging toward where Mipha had stomped off to. She found her friend a few dozen yards away storming back and forth and cursing quietly to herself in anger.

"Mipha," Zelda said gently as she approached her, "are you okay? You know how Revali is…"

"That dumb bird brain knows nothing about Link," Mipha yelled and pointed in Revali's direction, her typically soft tone gone and replaced with an anger that was new to Zelda as she realized she had never seen this strong of an emotional outburst from the Zoran Princess. "I watched Link slay a rampaging Lynel single handedly. He's saved my life on more than one occasion. The most Revali has done is learn to fly, and that makes sense since he has wings!"

Zelda was a bit taken aback wasn't exactly sure how to approach the venting Zora at that point, but she could tell that the stress of their mission was even beginning to get to the ever calm and composed Mipha. After a moment of silence, she took the chance to change the subject away from Revali's rude behavior. "So, you've known Link for a while then?"

Mipha, having calmed down significantly, nodded, "He visited quite often back then. And when the Hylian ambassadors stayed for an extended period, so too did he and his father. We practically grew up together. Over the years he's continued visiting us on and off."

"I never knew. He never mentioned it before," Zelda said as the two of them began to walk back to the campsite.

"He's so quiet and distant now," Mipha said, "I'm almost worried I've done something to upset him."

Zelda shook her head, "No, I don't think that's true. He barely talked to me before you guys joined up with us either. I think he's just taken the weight of his duties very seriously. He has a lot on his mind."

Mipha looked at the ground, "We used to talk to each other about things like that."

All of a sudden, a violent gale of wind whipped up around the two princesses. Dust and grass obstructed their view, and Zelda had to shield her eyes to prevent the particles from getting in them. A strong pulse threw the two of them back. Zelda landed on her rear while Mipha skillfully adjusted and was able to maintain her balance. The two gawked as a hole seemed to open in the air in front of them. The gale of wind grew stronger as the hole grew bigger until a body finally flew out of the hole and landed several yards away from the astonished girls, skidding to a stop. Almost as immediately as the body stopped moving, a blood curdling scream erupted from it, and it was then that the girls noticed the blood poring from where an arm used to be on what they could now tell was the body of a young man.

"Oh, my goddess!" Mipha breathed as she immediately sprung into action, bolting toward the body at what Zelda thought was extremely impressive speed given her relatively short legs. Zelda picked herself off the ground and followed quickly behind.

It seemed like slow motion to Zelda as she watched Mipha reach the injured young man and turned him over. And then Zelda stopped as she saw Mipha's face contort into one of what she could only describe as confused hysteria. Mipha began to scream hysterically and her hands immediately grew the brightest blue Zelda had ever seen them glow as she held them against the injured upper torso of the young man.

"No no no no no no no!" Mipha was weeping and shaking and trying to heal the young man. Her hands flickered as she shook while she sobbed.

Time seemed to resume normally as Zelda finally reached Mipha to try to calm her down when she too saw the face of the severely injured person. "Oh goddess, Link! No!"

His face was battered and bruised, as was the rest of his body. And the most obvious injury was the still bleeding chunk taken out of his upper torso. As best as Zelda could tell, most of his shoulder and part of his ribcage had been completely incinerated. She could see inside his chest cavity, and his face was turning a sickeningly pale gray. He was bleeding out quickly.

Tears began to stream down Zelda's face as Mipha continued to try to heal the mortal wound. She couldn't think. She felt numb and her hearing was muffled except for the sound of the blood pumping through her own head. Mipha was barely keeping it together, and it didn't seem her healing powers were making any progress on the massive wound of her longtime friend.

"Oh, goddess why!? Link why!? W-what happened!?" Mipha wailed.

"M-Mipha?" Link suddenly weakly sputtered.

"Y-yes," she choked out through her sobs, "hold still while I heal this."

Zelda saw Link groggily look down to his wound and saw a look of sorrow on his face, but she also saw a look of acceptance. Link gently took one of Mipha's hands.

"S-stop," she said and tried to pull back unsuccessfully, "I-I need both hands for this."

"You know it's not going to work, Mipha," Link said calmly, causing Mipha's sobs to grow louder. Link coughed up blood onto the grass, "look, I have to tell you something. I-it worked. Whatever Zelda did worked. G-Ganon…he knows our plan. He knows about the divine beasts. You can't use them…monsters…inside."

"Link," Mipha moaned through her continued sobs, "please let me heal you!"

Link then looked up into Mipha's eyes and attempted to lift his hand to her face, "Mipha, you…." And then his arm fell, and his body went limp. His eyes went vacant. Zelda went woozy as she realized her knight was dead. The only sound she could hear were the hysterical wails of her friend and her own uncontrollable sobs as she embraced Mipha and held her tight.


	3. The Confusion

Revali moved quickly as soon as he'd heard Zelda and Mipha scream. He listened hard for any trace of them as he circled the area in an attempt to spot the two princesses, chiding himself for not paying more attention to which way they had gone and hoping nothing had happened to them. Zelda could be bossy and Mipha seemed way too into Link for his tastes, but Revali had grown fond of the two of them, and he certainly didn't want to see anything happen to them, and when the blood curdling scream of Mipha caught his ears he was more scared for someone other than himself than he'd been in a long time.

Scanning the horizon to his east, he finally caught a glimpse of some movement a couple hundred yards away. Two people colored red and blue, yep that was them. He adjusted himself into a swift dive and quickly made up the space between himself and the two girls. The scene he landed into confused him at first. Zelda and Mipha were both sobbing with the Hylian embracing the Zora who was crouched with her head down in front of her. He carefully made his way around the two and saw something he didn't quite comprehend. The annoying Hylian knight lay there dead. The Zora princess was sobbing into his chest, and his arm was completely gone. _But how!? This doesn't make any sense!_

Revali carefully reached down to try to…console the girls? Move the body away? He wasn't sure. His head was a muddy mess of confusion at that point, because he was having trouble believing what he saw. Not just because one of his comrades was inexplicably dead, but also because of the logistics of him being dead.

"Stay away from him!" Mipha screamed at the startled Rito. He looked to Zelda's tear streaked face and she shook her head at him. Of the two, Zelda was clearly the most rational at the moment. Revali needed them to hear what he had seen earlier as to why the situation didn't make sense.

"Your highness…err, Zelda," he said softly. She looked to him again as he beckoned her to step away from the scene so they could talk. She whispered something to Mipha gently and then got up and went to her concerned comrade.

"W-what happened here?" Revali asked. He first needed to ascertain how the Hylian knight found himself here, let alone died.

"We were walking back to the camp when the wind started to swirl around us. A hole…appeared in the middle of the air and it spat him out onto the ground. He was already gravely injured and only had a moment to whisper something to Mipha before he died."

Revali pondered this for a moment before he responded, "See, Princess, this isn't making a lot of sense to me. We're a couple hundred yards to the east of the campsite here. But when I was flying back with the firewood, I saw Link with Daruk and Urbosa about a half mile to the west of the camp."

Zelda looked at him as if she'd never seen him before as the information sunk in. "So, w-what does that mean?"

Revali shook his head, "I don't know, but by now the others should be about to arrive at the campsite."

"Fly to them. If they are indeed there, bring them here as quickly as you can. If they are not, retrace your flight path to see if you see signs of a struggle."

Revali nodded and began to turn, but then had a thought. He reached into his satchel and pulled out a small knife and handed it to Zelda. "It's not much, but just in case you should also have a weapon. I'm not sure she's going to be any help in a fight," he nodded toward Mipha. "I'll be back as soon as possible."

Revali covered the near quarter of a mile faster than he thought he ever had before and was greeted with a sight that he never thought would make him feel relief.

"Hey, Birdo," the large Goron gleefully greeted his Rito companion until he suddenly realized how distressed Revali was. "What's wrong, buddy?"

"About three hundred yards that way," he pointed toward the 'incident.' "You all are going to want to see this…. especially you," he said, looking directly at Link.

* * *

Urbosa wasn't sure what to expect when they got to the scene of Revali's concern, but what she witnessed did something to her that was tough to do; it left her speechless. The next thing she noticed was Zelda, who quickly stood up from her embrace with their Zora comrade, and turned toward she, Daruk, and Link. Zelda's expression quickly turned utter surprise turn to relief and she immediately bent down to Mipha and began whispering in her ear and shaking her gently. The young Zora princess was inconsolable, Urbosa quickly realized, and Zelda was having issues getting her to do anything than continue to weep into what Urbosa now saw was a body on the ground. The Gerudo finally got close enough to the scene to see what was underneath Mipha, and nearly gave herself whiplash as she turned from the body on the ground to her companion on her right.

Her friend Link was often times stoic and unreadable. He kept quiet often, and she could tell he took his job and his devotion to Hyrule very seriously. He took more on to his own shoulders than he should quite often. But even through all that, she almost never saw his demeanor crack. But the surprise on his face at that moment was undeniable.

Urbosa shook her head to clear away her confusion so that she could deal with the issue at hand reasonably and rationally. The first thing she heard was Zelda continuing to try to get Mipha to calm down. "Mipha you have to look behind you! Link is alive!"

Little by little the red head of the Zora Princess began to lift off the body. Her face was gaunt and her eyes were bloodshot as it was evident she'd been crying heavily for quite a while. And it took several moments to register in her expression what she was seeing as she gazed into the face of Link. Grief turned to surprise which turned to more crying as she lept to her feet and embraced the surprised soldier, knocking him to the ground as she seemed to want to wrap her entire body around his and never let him go. She didn't say anything but just sobbed into Link's shoulder, who whispered at her gently as he pat her back and stroked her head.

The group stood quietly for several minutes as Zelda and Mipha collected themselves. Zelda also embraced Link as he stood up and expressed vehemently how happy she was to see him safe. Urbosa noticed Link's calm and collected demeanor had mostly returned as the group turned their attention to the body on the ground. Daruk was the first to speak.

"What on earth happened?"

Since Mipha was clearly still recovering, clinging tightly to Link's hand, Zelda began to relay what had happened to the others. Urbosa listened closely and thoughtfully as she tried to make sense of the mystery in front of them. Who was this man on the ground? Why did he look identical to Link. Where had his wounds come from? It began to drive her nuts, because from what Zelda told them, they had nothing in terms of answers for any of those questions.

The group was quiet again as they all took in the information and the scene in front of them. Link attempted to kneel next to the body but found himself held up by his Zora friend. He looked her in the eye comfortingly and patted her hand before removing it and turning back to the body. He carefully turned the body over and pulled the shirt up gently revealing an array of scars. Many Link did not recognize, but there was one prominent one that went across the small of the back that he did. He stood up again silently and pulled up his own shirt and Urbosa saw that the scar on Link matched the scar on the body on the ground.

"They're the same," she said softly.

"So what does that mean?" Revali asked, the typical snide tinge in his voice noticeably absent.

"I don't know exactly, but it would seem to suggest that this person and Link are…the same?"

"There are a lot of different scars on his back," Link said softly as Mipha grabbed his hand again, "but that one is the same I've had since I was a child."

"So, uhh, I hate to bring this up, but what should we do with this guy?" Daruk asked cautiously after several more moments of silence.

Urbosa glanced over at Link. She wasn't sure how he was handling seeing what was seemingly his own body in the state it was in, and wanted to approach everything they would do from that moment forward carefully. But at that point there was no questioning what they had to do next.

"We have to take it back to the castle so Purah can tell us if he actually is another Link and why he showed up here."

"But we're more than halfway to Mt. Lanayru," Revali said. "Aren't we in a hurry to get to the Spring of Wisdom?"

As eager as Zelda was to get to the final spring, she knew Urbosa was right. The sudden appearance and death of someone who looked just like Link might very well have something to do with the coming Calamity. Furthermore, neither she nor Mipha were in a state to focus on continuing their journey to the spring anyway. "Urbosa is right," she finally said. "This might very well have something to do with Ganon. We need to reset in Hyrule Castle."

"I-if I may," Mipha's small voice cut through the group, "he said something to me before he…"

Her voice gave out briefly as she choked back another wave of tears. She felt Link squeeze her hand reassuringly and was able to continue, "He told me that Ganon knows what our plan is. He said the Divine Beasts have monsters inside of them."

The group grew quiet again. Urbosa tapped her chin as she thought. If that was true, then their entire approach to Ganon would have to change. And if the person laying dead before them was who she thought it was, then plans were going to have to change drastically.

"Let's start back," she said. "We can make it by midday tomorrow if we start now. We can stay overnight at the Wetland Stables."

* * *

The stables had finally quieted down after visitors were unceremoniously kicked out of their rooms to make space for the champions and the package they were carrying. Daruk wasn't a fan of throwing his weight around as a champion in order to garner special favors, but this situation called for more extreme measures than he and his compatriots employed. When they had arrived, they were swarmed by the half dozen or so people staying there. The celebrity that came along with being a Champion was sometimes more of an impediment, but luckily the management cooperated with Urbosa's request to clear the place out.

Mipha had fallen asleep almost immediately, and Zelda not long after. It didn't surprise the large Goron elder, as they had both been through an emotional roller coaster. Daruk and Urbosa had both noticed how Mipha hadn't left Link's side since the event and seemed to still be suffering from the shock of the event up until she fell asleep. Urbosa sat up with Zelda until she finally fell asleep and then made her way over to the table where Daruk was enjoying a drink.

"Some day, eh?"

She nodded and rubbed her eyes, "I knew we might be in for some surprises in this gig, but dead bodies of living people standing right next to you suddenly appearing in the middle of nowhere? Not exactly what I was expecting."

"How is Link?"

"As hard to read as ever," she said gesturing toward the young man who had his back turned as he slept on his side. "I think this shook him a little though. I can't imagine seeing someone who looks just like me dead. It must be surreal."

"And the girls took it really hard. Especially little Mipha."

Urbosa nodded, "So here's something interesting. Before she nodded off, the Princess told me that Link and Mipha are childhood friends."

"Well that explains it," Daruk said while he scratched his beard.

Urbosa nodded as she took a swig of the drink the waiter had just set in front of her, "Between you and me, she's a little upset Mipha and Link didn't tell her. I don't think Zelda would have asked her along if she'd known."

"It doesn't seem right to leave any of us out of this thing, though," Daruk said, "Wasn't the whole point of this little journey so we'd bond as a team? It's not like anyone else could pilot Vah Ruta."

"That's what I told her, but I think she's worried about what happens to the rest of the team if Link does go down somehow and Mipha suddenly can't function," Urbosa shrugged and downed the rest of her beer, "this whole thing isn't an exact science, that's for sure."

Daruk turned to the sheet covered lump on the floor next to Urbosa's bed. Luckily for them, the body hadn't begun to smell at that point, but he knew they were running on borrowed time in that department, and that they needed to get back to the castle ASAP to have as complete a specimen as possible for Purah. _Ugh,_ Daruk knocked his own head with the palm of his hand when he thought of….Link's body as a specimen.

"So you really think it's the Little Guy's body?"

Urbosa nodded, "Yeah. Mipha thinks it's him too, though she doesn't know how to explain it. But I have an idea what might be going on."

Daruk raised an eyebrow, "Oh?"

"My running theory right now is that he's from the future. And from the looks of it, things didn't go so well. Add to that the fact that he told Mipha that our plan failed and I think it's a pretty good bet."

"The future, eh? How would he get back here?"

"There are some stories among the old legends of some time traveling heroes. It's entirely possible either he found a way back, or the future Zelda sent him. Honestly I'm hoping it's the latter, because that would mean her search for answers to her latent powers isn't a complete waste of time after all."

Daruk nodded and noticed how tired Urbosa had begun to look, "It might be time for you to get some sleep."

Urbosa yawned and stood up, "I think you're right. Good night, Big Guy."

Daruk nodded as he took the last sip of his own beer and retreated into his own thoughts. Things that morning had been so simple, but now everything he thought about with regard to their mission just made his head hurt. He had finally begun to learn how to pilot Vah Rudania, but now he realized it was a real possibility that they wouldn't even be able to use the Divine Beasts at all.

He stood, popped his back, and found himself glancing back at the dead body draped in sheets next to Urbosa's bed. He felt an intense sorrow as he realized that Urbosa was probably correct regarding the identity of the body. It seemed so wrong to be lugging the body of his dear friend across Hyrule field. Then he glanced at 'his' Link, asleep in the bed across the room. Daruk vowed to himself he would not let that happen to him. Not this time.

Feeling better and with less of a headache, Daruk headed to his corner of the inn and closed his eyes. Sleep quickly found him.

* * *

 **Note: Hey everyone hope you're enjoying the story so far. The first few chapters actually went a little faster than I'd wanted, but the tone and pace I was going for dictated their length. I'm hoping to slow down a bit coming up. We'll see.**

 **Thanks for the follows and reviews so far. Keep it up. Let me know what you think!**


	4. The Stress

Hyrule Caslte Town, usually full of hustle and bustle as merchants peddled their wares, children laughed, and citizens went about their daily work, was quiet as the caravan of champions slowly trotted through the streets. People gazed out their windows or gathered on the streets as the Champions' horses slowly trotted down the main street toward the castle. There was a solemnness to the group of heroes that the people were not accustomed to seeing from their heroes, and no one was quite sure why they had returned so soon. Citizens in the crowds quietly commented on how tired and anxious they looked, and a foreboding feeling suddenly gripped the Town of Hyrule as the castle gates closed and blocked their Champions from view.

* * *

Mipha awoke suddenly gasping for air gasping for air. Sweating and with tears running down her face, she placed her hand on her chest and willed herself to calm down. Her breathing gradually slowed and her body began recovering from its sudden fight or flight response. Glancing around the room and then out the window, the starlit sky told her that she hadn't made it through the night; again. It had been three days since the incident in Hyrule field, and she hadn't been able to sleep through the night since. Nightmares had invaded her dreams ever since, and there were many moments when she had to step away from whatever group she was with and catch her breath. It was like a constant struggle to stay sane since she had seen Link die in the middle of a field. The image haunted her, and even in that moment the panic threatened to take over again.

"No!" she said to herself quietly as she swung her feet over the side of the bed and made her way to the balcony. Her room was spacious and decorated beautifully. The colors of Hyrule adorned the walls, giving life to the dull gray stone the castle was composed of. She could never complain about the amenities provided her by the Hyrule royal family. She even often thought they doted too much on the champions and sometimes felt guilty that she, royalty herself, was taking advantage of her gracious hosts.

The package in the corner of the room caught her eye and she paused. She had brought it with her to Hyrule, and then had traveled since with it. It was burdening her, but not due to its weight, but because of what it meant for her future. She had been able to ignore it for the most part because of the mission she had been tasked with, but seeing it reminded her that if they were able to defeat Ganon, there would be a future she would have to consider. And that package continually reminded her of the uncertainty of that future.

Reaching the balcony, she rested her hands on the rail and looked into the clear night sky. The faint breeze felt blew her fin gently and relaxed her. The city below, while not anywhere near as beautiful as her own city in her opinion, was still aesthetically pleasing to look at. The dots of light from the late night workers and night owls reminded her of fireflies, which in turn reminded her of nights she spend with Link in their youth catching the small bugs. She smiled as she remembered how seriously the young boy took the game, and how she enjoyed simply watching him run back and forth through the field excitedly grabbing them out of the air.

Then the vision of Link bleeding out while she helplessly wept at his side invaded her mind again. She turned from the railing and squatted on the balcony holding her head. It felt like she'd been struck with a rock. The pain in her head subsided and her breathing once again returned to normal, and she opened her eyes only to find the package in the corner staring her in the face.

She had determined to wait to show it to him till after they had defeated Ganon and had rationalized to herself that neither of them needed the pressure of the answer that would come, one way or the other, hanging over their heads as they went into a battle for the survival of the world. But in that moment, it hit her; she couldn't wait anymore. It had torn her apart when she thought she would never have the opportunity to show him the gift, to tell him what he truly meant to her. If either of them, Hylia forbid, died in the upcoming confrontation, then her feelings would be left unknown forever, and she couldn't handle that. She had felt as if she was coming apart at the seams emotionally for three days straight, and it was no longer something she could bear, in spite of her best judgment.

She grabbed up the package and made her way to the bedroom door and quickly started down the hall toward Link's quarters.

* * *

Zelda didn't sleep much anymore. In fact, she hadn't slept well for years, and she often found herself wandering the quiet, dimly lit halls of the castle at night; much as she was doing at that moment. She mindlessly dragged her hand along the stone wall, her shadow from the torches lighting the hall providing a slight distraction as her mind was filled with doubts, worries, and fears. Much of her internal thought life those days was caught up with self-doubt. She had no power and was nearly useless in battle. Her scientific acumen, as impressive as it might have been, was not what the kingdom needed from her. Her people needed her to be the Princess of Legend with the power to seal the darkness. But all she could do with any skill was study silly historical trinkets.

She stopped and hit the wall in frustration. Pain shot through her arm up into her shoulder, but she ignored it and cursed under her breath. Why couldn't she do it? She had tried for years to conjure the foretold power. Much of the past year had been spent traveling with Link and the other Champions as a last-ditch effort to pray at different holy sites around the kingdom to try to kickstart whatever it was that needed to be kickstarted.

Her mind wandered to Mipha. What did she have that Zelda didn't? Her power came to her as naturally as her swimming, and yet she faced a similar upbringing to Zelda. Mipha had never had to travel around the kingdom to unlock the ability to heal her friends. Rather, she had been healing people like Link (as Zelda had come to find out) since she had been a child.

And there was another thing that irked her about her Zoran counterpart; keeping her relationship with Link secret for all this time. What on earth was that girl thinking? Surely, she knew how relevant information like that was. And Zelda didn't even want to think of how upset she was with her personal knight at also keeping it under wraps for so long.

Having gone from discouraged to angry, Zelda hiked up her long nightgown and began storming back to her room. A nightshift guard thought about stopping her to ask if she needed anything, but he recognized the look on her face and decided better of it, quickly turning back to his post.

Zelda quickly rounded the corner on the way back to her quarters and suddenly found herself bouncing off of someone and falling to the ground.

"Oh Princess, I'm so sorry," Mipha's voice cut through the quiet as Zelda began to push herself up off the ground.

"Mipha, what are you doing up at such a late hour?" Zelda asked as she straightened out her nightgown, noticing a package laying on the ground next to Mipha's red feet.

Mipha quickly gathered the parcel up, "Oh, um, I couldn't sleep so I was…just going to take a short walk."

"Oh, would you like some company?" Zelda asked, figuring an opportunity to clear the air with Mipha was presenting itself.

Mipha hesitated and looked at the parcel in her hand. After a moment Zelda swore she heard her sigh and then she replied, "Yes, I would appreciate that." And with that they began walking down the dimly lit hallway together

"We haven't seen much of you the last few days, Mipha. Have you been okay?"

"I-I have been okay," Mipha lied.

Zelda thought for a moment, trying to find the best way to approach her counterpart. Everyone knew Mipha had been emotionally damaged by what had happened in Hyrule Field, and there had been chatter around the castle about how strangely the Zora Champion had been acting. When she wasn't with Link, she was trying to find Link. And when she couldn't find him, the panic from the Zora Princess was palpable.

"Look," Zelda finally spoke up, "we all know what happened the other day was tough on you, and I don't blame you. But…we're concerned about how you've been acting since it happened. You haven't been acting yourself exactly."

Mipha remained quiet and looked at the ground as she clung the package she held to her chest.

Zelda continued, "I-I just need to know that we can still count on you. We still need you to pilot Vah Ruta if we're able to discern what is going on with the divine beasts. And we're going to need your healing."

Quietly, Mipha responded, "Princess, I will fulfill my duties."

"I know there's history between you and Link," Zelda continued without missing a beat, her duty to keep the team effective foremost in her mind, "and we can't risk any distractions because of personal feelings, Mipha."

The Zora princess stopped, and Zelda halted after another step and turned to face her. It was hard to read Mipha at that moment because she was still looking at the ground, and the package she held was concealing part of her face. Did Zelda see her shaking all of a sudden? But when Mipha looked up to look Zelda in her eyes, there was no mistaking the emotion.

Slowly, forefully, and through gritted teeth, Mipha sneered, "What would you know about _my_ feelings, Princess?"

Zelda attempted to back up a bit, "M-Mipha, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to ensure that the team is effective. I can't have a member more concerned about one person over the others."

"Oh yes, your highness," Mipha began to get angrier, and she spat, "we all know how you wouldn't want anyone else to pay any attention to your personal protector."

Zelda was taken aback. Her mouth opened but nothing came out.

Mipha stepped closer and pointed in Zelda's face, "You treated him like dirt for months and then you two went away together and all of a sudden you're inseparable! What did _you_ do, your highness!?"

Finally, Zelda gathered her wits enough to respond. Quickly, she grabbed Mipha's hand and moved it out of her face. With her own surprisingly forceful tone, she firmly said, "That's enough, Mipha!"

With that, Mipha's demeanor completely changed. In a moment she went from anger and determination to a look of shame and regret.

"Is everything alright here?" The guard from down the hall had suddenly appeared next to the two princesses only to find Zelda firmly holding on to the Zora's hand and glaring at her.

Zelda released her now dejected counterpart and assured the guard they were fine. He walked away and Zelda softly continued, "I think we should both get some sleep, Mipha."

"Y-yes. I-I'm so sorry."

"Me too," Zelda said reassuringly, "maybe I came on a little strong."

Mipha turned and slowly began making her way back to her room as Zelda watched. As the red skinned girl got farther and farther down the hall and the shock of the confrontation began to wear off, the gears in Zelda's head finally clicked, and surprised at her own realization she blurted, "You're in love with him!"

Mipha froze at the end of the hall.

* * *

"So then you're absolutely sure that this is Link?"

The small lab was dimly lit and was in a dank basement underneath Hyrule Castle. Urbosa, Revali and Daruk were uncomfortably tall in the lab because the ceiling was set much lower than most other places in the castle. It made sense given the stature of the two women who owned and operated the facility, but it made it difficult for larger visitors to navigate around the space.

Unfortunately for the three Champions, Purah had been rushing back and forth throughout the entire expanse of the room, forcing them to try to keep up as she did her work and jabbered on using jargon neither of them really understood.

"Yes, madam Champion," Purah resonded dutifully and quickly. Her small voice was surprisingly loud, and her pronunciation was exceedingly clear, to which Urbosa was grateful for. She talked so quickly that if hadn't spoken so clearly, no one would be able to understand her. "You see, we've recently discovered a method the ancients used to identify people using a kind of code found inside of the smallest components that make up our bodies. That code is made up of 4 component parts and it is responsible for the way any of us develop in our physical forms. It's beautiful too. It sounds unbelievable, but what makes up what our bodies become is shaped like a beautiful double helix, and…"

Urbosa knew the young scientist had already lost Daruk, and she was getting off on another tangent, so she gently interrupted, "And that code from the dead body we brought back…?"

"It's the same as from the blood sample I took from Link…our Link. The one that isn't dead."

Urbosa tapped her chin thoughtfully as Revali spoke up, "So did he come from the future?"

Purah nodded, "That I can also confirm. As we excavated the divine beasts, we also discovered small fragments of stone that we soon realized caused a small localized reaction that brought past events into the future. Struck the correct way a localized effect would occur where the past would appear in a small circumference around the stone. There were only fragments, so the practical effects of the stones were limited, but we were able to get readings off of the stones. They emanated a strange radiation when activated, and this Link is completely riddled with it. The best explanation is that he indeed traveled through time."

Urbosa found herself pulling on a strand of her hair. It was starting to become a bad habit, and she wasn't exactly sure when she'd started doing it. Quickly she put it out of her mind, "It would probably be a good assumption then that if Link needed to travel back in time, we probably lost in the future."

Revali scoffed at the suggestion, but Daruk remained stoically quiet as the probability sunk in. Losing. It wasn't something he had even considered as possible. He hadn't lost at much in his life, and now it looked like he had failed in his most important moment. "So what he said about there being monsters in the Divine Beasts…you think they…killed us? Err…will kill us…Uh…what do we call it?"

"Well technically," Purah interjected, "assuming he did come from the future, then that reality is either gone completely, or we've split off into a different parallel timeline. Whatever the case, our path isn't his path anymore. And lucky for us judging from the looks of him."

Urbosa then was faced with having to deal with the uncomfortable reality in front of her once more. A dead friend.

"We should bury him," she said softly, "it's already been too long."

"Yeah," Daruk said quietly and uncharacteristically subdued.

"Hey wait! There's still a lot I could learn from studying his body!" Purah protested.

"Purah for Hylia's sake, have some respect for the dead," a new voice wafted in from the entrance to the lab as Impa strolled in gracefully.

Impa approached Urbosa and bowed slightly, to which Urbosa reciprocated. She repeated the action in front of Daruk as well, who would have bowed if he hadn't already been crouching over in the small room. Revali simply nodded to her when the formality was performed for him.

"Welcome back, sis," Purah said as she embraced her older sister in a tight hug. Urbosa chuckled. It looked like Impa was about to pop.

"I came as soon as I received word about the situation. How dreadful this is," she said solemnly as she laid her hand on the dead Link's forehead and said a prayer.

"Purah, please go call the funeral director and tell him to prepare for a quiet burial."

"But sis, we can't know what knowledge we're missing out on if we do that!"

Impa turned to her sister sternly, "We can't learn anything else of practical value at this point. And regardless, we don't have the time!"

Purah backed down and left the lab grumbling. Impa took one last look at the dead Champion on the examination table and turned to leave as well, beckoning to the three elder Champions as she passed.

A short time later they all found themselves in a small conference room in one of the castle offshoots as Impa poured herself and Urbosa some tea. Daruk had been given a pristine cut of rock steak and was munching on it happily. Revali stood to the side and gazed out a window, unusually quiet and thoughtful.

"Is something in your hair, Lady Urbosa?" Impa inquired, and Urbosa suddenly realized she was pulling at it again.

"No," she replied curtly and sipped her tea.

"How are the younger Champions holding up?" Impa quickly moved to the next subject.

"Princess Zelda seems more driven than ever but has been short and uncharacteristically curt with everyone. Link is always pretty unreadable, but he's been training for 12 hours a day since we found the body. Mipha has basically been shadowing Link since the event and has been acting erratically at times."

"And you've at least developed a nervous tick, I see," Impa said gesturing to Urbosa again as she was pulling at her long red hair. "And what about you, Daruk? How are you holding up?"

Daruk thought for a moment. Should he have some emotional aftereffects from seeing his friend dead and yet not dead? He looked down at his food and suddenly realized he wasn't hungry anymore. In fact, when had he last eaten a good meal?

"Revali?" The Rito had no answer. Nothing was making sense to him that day.

* * *

A loud _thunk_ echoed through the training range as Link embedded his sword into another training dummy, splitting it down the middle. His breathing was ragged and heavy. He was into his sixth hour of training that day without a break and his body was screaming at him to stop. But he didn't listen. He hadn't for days. He was a failure, and he couldn't tolerate it. It was such a contradiction in his own mind that it rose to the level of logical impossibility.

He had know from the instant he saw his own dead body that it was him. He hadn't needed Purah to come by and tell him, though she had. In his gut he knew, at it had made him feel things he'd never felt before.

Slicing horizontally, another dummy was chopped in half. He heard himself yell but it didn't feel like himself. He had felt oddly disconnected from reality since he saw himself dead, and he didn't know how to get back onto solid ground. It was a strange feeling that only slightly subsided when he trained. But almost four days of nothing but training was beginning to take its toll. He was tired. Sweat drenched his shirt and was dripping off of his face. Glancing around he noted that the large training yard was mostly empty. A lone guard in the distance was doing his daily drills at the far corner of the rectangular yard, almost purposely setting himself as far away from Link as possible.

At the other wall he saw the only constant in his life the last few days other than training, and that was Mipha. She sat in a chair and watched him nearly the entire day, passing the time with reading or knitting. He was worried about his long-time friend. They'd always had a deep bond ever since childhood, and they tried to spend a lot of time together, but she'd never clung to him like this before. Shutting his eyes, he recalled her pained sobs and when she had watched the other _him_ die. He'd never seen her so distraught, and he was ashamed that he had been the cause of her grief.

Thirst finally began to well up in the back of Link's dry throat, far later than he had expected. Maybe stopping and resting had finally allowed his body to express that he hadn't exactly been taking care of it the last several days, and so he determined to get out of his funk and go have a drink with his friend.

Since beginning his duty as Zelda's knight, he hadn't been able to spend any time with Mipha at all, and it had been strange to travel with her and yet have to forego their typical friendship due to their respective duties. That was going to end today. He didn't particularly care what the others thought, he didn't want to see his friend so troubled any more. If he could make her laugh like they did when they were children, it would make the whole bleak situation that much better.

Mipha looked surprised as Link approached her. "Oh!" she said, "are you finished?"

He nodded while grabbing a towel and wiping his face off. "Would you like to go grab something to eat?" he asked.

She nodded and smiled. Yeah, that did make things better.

* * *

It wasn't long after that it happened. Mipha and Link were still finishing off their meal in the castle mess hall while Urbosa, Revali, and Daruk had just left their meeting with Impa. Zelda had been spending time in meetings with her father and other military leaders in the throne room as they discussed the new revelations regarding the Divine Beasts.

If only they'd had a little more time; a few weeks probably would have done it. Zelda had even already approved a plan for a garrison to travel with her and Link to the first Divine Beast to inspect it and clear out any potential monster. But that's not what happened. Ganon's return was never going to be pleasant; whether in this timeline, or the other.

And indeed when the ground began to shake and the thick dark smoke began to flow throughout the castle and pour out of any opening possible, when the dark monsters coalesced from that smoke and began to kill the castle's inhabitants, when Ganon arose in this new timeline, it was no more pleasant than it was before Link was sent back in time.


End file.
